New York Sour

Do you love a good Whiskey Sour but want to try it with a little bit of a twist? Well, that's what the New York Sour is for. Basically all you're doing is making a Whiskey Sour then floating some Red Wine on top. That's it!

While the recipe suggests a fruitier Wine variety, it's also worthwhile playing with different styles of Wine, especially paired with different Bourbons (or any Whiskey really!). The flavour profiles of both Wine and Whiskey can vary greatly, so you may find a winning combination. That's half the fun of this cocktail, and cocktails in general: you can experiment, see what you like, see what others like, and find new flavours.

The float of the Red Wine takes a bit of practice, but once you have it down it adds a nice fruit element to the cocktail that's quite enjoyable. Give this a go.

Total Time 5

Servings 1 cocktail

Ingredients

60 mL Bourbon Rye works too.
30 mL Lemon Juice
15 mL Simple Syrup* or to taste, however you do a Whiskey Sour.
Egg white (optional)
15 mL Red Wine Something fruity.

Instructions

Combine Bourbon, Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup, and Egg White in a cocktail shaker. Using the optional egg white will add more froth to the drink but will make floating the wine at the end more difficult, so considering omitting the egg white if you're new to floats.
Shake well WITHOUT ice. This is called dry shaking and helps get everything frothy.
Add ice to the cocktail shaker and shake again until cold.
Strain into a Rocks glass.
Carefully pour the Red Wine over the back of a bar spoon so it floats on top of the drink. Don't mix the Red Wine with the drink, it needs to float on top so that there are two layers: cocktail and red wine. This takes some practice but it's worth it for both taste and appearance.
Enjoy your cocktail!

Notes

*Simple Syrup can be made home with this recipe.

Don't give up on this cocktail too quickly if you're having trouble with the float. You may see too much mixing of cocktail and Wine at first, but once you get it, the proper flavour comes out and it's wonderful. While the egg white adds a lot of texture to the drink and a nice foam on top, it does make it a bit harder to float the Red Wine on top, and getting the float right adds even more to the flavour and appearance of this cocktail than the egg white will ever do. If you have to choose, choose getting the float right!

And it probably goes without saying that the Red Wine flavour will only be as good as the quality of the Wine that you use! Of course you don't need to be using some extremely expensive bottle that's been aging for 100 years or something like that, but using a $5 bottle of cooking wine is also a very quick way to ruin an otherwise great cocktail. So do yourself a favour with ingredients.

Our Review of the New York Sour

A Whiskey Sour with Wine on top of it? Sounds good to me.

Wine floats, or floats of anything, can be difficult to do, but get it right and you’re in for a pretty good cocktail.

The New York Sour is a nice little extension of the Whiskey Sour, adding some fruitiness to a great classic and creating a point of difference. But the big question is, does a bit of Wine create enough difference to make this cocktail unique enough and tasty enough to both with?

I say it does.

While the Whiskey Sour is a great cocktail for beginners to make, the New York Sour adds new challenges. Because of this, it’s a good cocktail recipe to try and work up to in your cocktail making skills. And, in my opinion, think that part of the fun of making cocktails is practicing new techniques and getting better at them. Keep practicing and you’ll take the your skills to the next level. And before you know it, you’ll be making cocktails like the Mezcal Sour (or Oaxaca Sour, whatever you want to call it).

The biggest problem with the New York Sour is if you don’t get the float right though. And the float is the big part that makes this cocktail so good. If the Red Wine float gets messed up, all the ingredients mix together. Not only does this ruin the visuals of the cocktail (which are important), it also alters the flavour of the cocktail (which is more important). This means that, when practicing making a cocktail like this, you’ll likely wind up with more than a few failed attempts. It will still taste pretty good, but nowhere near as good as it tastes when you get it right.

The New York Sour is one of those cocktails that you need to practice. The good news is though that if you practice, it will likely pay off. You’ll have a new cocktail making skill, and you’ll get to enjoy a great cocktail in the mean time.

7.5/10

Review by Ziggy

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